Example of Elian Gonzalez misses one key point

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In his Sunday op-ed piece on the law (“In ‘Letter,’ King’s caution about bowing to the law,” April 14), Jeff Jacoby uses the example of Elian Gonzalez and “the glee on the left when the Clinton administration tore the young Cuban refugee . . . from the home of his Miami relatives at gunpoint and forcibly returned him to Cuba.” Sounds pretty dire until you realize that the Clinton administration did not forcibly return Elian to Cuba; the administration forcibly returned him to his father, who lived in Cuba.

To Jacoby and the right wing, who conveniently lost their family values, Elian Gonzalez was a symbol, not a person. They saw it as their right, based on ideology, to forcibly keep him separated from his father.